NCJ Number
209823
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2005 Pages: 308-324
Date Published
June 2005
Length
17 pages
Annotation
In this pilot study conducted in Quebec, Canada, 15 pedophiles participating in a clinic for sexual abusers were interviewed, and plan analysis was used to identify the prevalent variables related to staying in or leaving treatment.
Abstract
All of the study participants had exclusively molested victims outside their family who were male and younger than 11 years old. Nondirective semistructured interviews were used to obtain sufficient information to develop a plan analysis, which serves as the basis for clinical case conceptualizations and therapy planning. Plan analysis draws largely from information-processing theories and incorporates concepts from goal-oriented, interactionist, interpersonal, systemic, cognitive, behavior, change and self-organization, and emotion theories. Plan analysis includes a patient's goals or desires, but also the means by which these goals are attained. Overall, qualitative analysis identified three prominent motives related to pedophiles' participation in or avoidance of treatment: a desire to recover their freedom (n=4), a desire to have a sense of mastery (n=7), and a wish to avoid criticism and rejection and to be accepted (n=8). The authors discuss how each of these goals may contribute either to the motivation to enter and continue therapy or to avoid or leave therapy. The techniques, skills, and knowledge of the therapist in tapping into these motives will usually determine whether an offender enters, continues in, and benefits from treatment. The authors discuss how therapists might deal with various manifestations of pedophiles' behavioral motives related to treatment. 1 table, 2 figures, and 28 references